Sermon Tone Analysis
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· INTRODUCTION: Good morning GPC!
It’s so good to be together!
Would you turn in your bibles with me to Acts 14? We’ll be in Acts 14:19-23 today.
As you turn there, let me go over a few announcements.
o (Announcements)
o Would you please stand with me for the reading of God’s word?
This is God’s Word! (Read passage, pray, you may be seated, drink)
o No one likes hard times.
I mean, can you honestly sit here and say that you ENJOY hard times?
We may know that they can be used by God for good, but that doesn’t mean that we LOVE and live for hard times!
§ Yet, assuredly, we will encounter them.
Every person in human history has had hard times.
We can find examples of this anywhere we look.
In the Bible, in history, in our community; we can see examples of people who have gone through hard times.
§ One of the very unique things about the Christian life is that we have a guide given to us on how to handle these difficult times.
Our guide comes straight from the Bible.
· See, in the Old and New Testament we see people struggling.
We see examples of people handling their struggles well and examples of people handling them poorly, like Jacob and Joseph’s brothers!
· Today, we see an example of someone handling their trials iin a God-honoring way.
We are going to see Paul ENDURING trial after trial and we will see HOW HE IS ABLE TO DO THIS!
o See, when we look back at trials, we can often see ways that God used them for our good.
Yet, as we are in them, it can feel extremely defeating.
o What we get to see in Acts 14 is someone in the MIDST OF A TRIAL and we can see in many of Paul’s epistles, how the very events that we are studying in Acts shaped who he was and helped him grow!
§ As we go begin our time looking at Acts 14:19-23 together, I want you to take a second and think of a tough thing in your own life.
Maybe it’s current, maybe it’s something your concerned about.
For me, I found out that my Grandma Good’s cancer had spread on Thursday and Saturday she was put into in-home hospice care.
That’s hard!
It’s hard to lose a loved one.
§ Keep that in mind as we examine how scripture can shape our responses in a difficult time.
· This morning our main point is simple.
It is simply, THE LORD IS WORTHY OF IT ALL!
· BODY: Acts 14 is an emotional roller coaster!
There is joy, there is sorrow, there are many coming to know the Lord and there are many rejecting everything that has to do with Jesus!
o Talk about a roller coaster!
Paul and Barnabas have been threatened with being stoned; they’ve seen the Lord heal a man, AND they’ve been called Zeus and Hermes and had to stop sacrifices from being offered to them.
§ It’s been a wild ride.
o Honestly, verse 19 is just as wild.
It says, “But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.”
§ PAUL IS STONED!
§ Remember, the Jewish populations of Pisidian Antioch and Iconium both wanted to stone him, but both times he escaped.
This time he does not.
· Now, these people show up, they cause trouble and they persuade the crowds to stone Paul!
· These troublemakers think that they have solved their problem but they really have not!
§ Stoning is a grotesque punishment.
It began by being thrown off a small cliff, or into a ditch of some type.
Then, large rocks would be thrown and pushed onto you.
· To be clear, these are not little pebbles, these are LARGE ROCKS!
These are heavy and hard to throw.
These rocks were thrown until the person being stoned had died.
o Here, they throw rocks and assume that Paul has died.
o Little do they know that he has not!
o Even in the midst of this horrendous tragedy, God is good to Paul and He delivers Paul from this.
§ Now, I know what you may be thinking.
Why would God allow Paul to go through this?
· Well, there’s a few reasons that I think are clear even just from the next few verses, but one is that it transforms Paul’s ability to sympathize and empathize with suffering Christians.
o Look it, this is an absolutely brutal trial to go throughl.
But, God has a plan and a purpose for this trial!
· Verse 20 says, “But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe.”
o The other believers come to Paul, unsure if he is alive or not and he gets up and enters the city!
§ Paul is OK! I’m sure he was in pain, but, he was healthy enough to travel about 20 miles to Derbe!
§ God preserved Paul’s life!
Trials are not easy.
This tests Paul’s faith.
Yet, God is still good!
God still keeps him alive!
· Assuredly, Paul is bruised and battered.
THE DAY AFTER HE WAS STONED though, HE WAS BACK ON HIS TRIP!
o Why?
Because nothing can stop him from sharing the gospel.
§ Later in Acts he’s shipwrecked, he’s beaten, he’s jailed, and yet NONE OF THAT STOPS HIM!
§ Paul is totally consumed by the gospel!
Jesus is his CENTRAL AND COMPLETE FOCUS!
· Honestly, it gives us a challenge.
Is Jesus our focus?
Are we totally focused on Jesus?
Or do we let ourselves get distracted by the pain of our world?
o Let’s be clear, life is hard.
Our world is fallen, full of sin and of sinners.
Yet, as we deal with this, how do we handle it?
Do we hide away, or are we bold with the gospel, enduring whatever hardships may come our way?
§ For Paul, he knew what he was called to do.
He persevered time and time again.
§ What kept him going was Jesus!
Jesus strengthened him!
Just as Jesus strengthened Paul, HE WILL strengthen us.
So, if you are in the midst of a trial, CALL OUT TO HM!
§ It doesn’t have to be a stoning!
God is good!
Call out to HIM!
· Verse 21 fills me with so much joy.
Luke writes, “When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch,”
o Look at that! Paul and Barnabas preach the gospel in Derbe and they see many come to Jesus.
One day Paul is being stoned, the next, God is working through these two!
§ God is in control and HE NEVER FAILS!
§ Even as Paul was stoned and as Barnabas faced persecution, GOD WAS WITH THEM!
o The gospel is received in Derbe, but what is most amazing to me is what happens after their time in Derbe!
§ Paul and Barnabas go BACK TO LYSTRA, to Iconium and to Antioch!
· The very people who stoned paul?
Those are the ones that he wants to reach!
· Those are the ones that he labors to share the good news with!
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